The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the findings of an Independent Drive Test (IDT) conducted along the Lanka–Narainpur Railway Bridge stretch on NH-27 and NH-627 in Assam, providing a detailed assessment of mobile network quality offered by telecom service providers in the region.
Conducted between March 10 and 18, 2026, under the supervision of TRAI’s Kolkata Regional Office, the exercise covered 189.7 km of highway routes and seven hotspot locations. The drive test evaluated critical quality parameters such as network coverage, call drop rates, call setup success rates, speech quality, call silence instances, and data download and upload speeds across 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G networks.
Among operators, Reliance Jio recorded the highest average download speed of 88.21 Mbps, followed by Airtel at 66.50 Mbps, Vodafone Idea at 16.84 Mbps and BSNL at 4.86 Mbps. Airtel led upload performance with 13.63 Mbps, while Jio, VIL and BSNL recorded 6.61 Mbps, 3.99 Mbps and 3.10 Mbps, respectively. The report also identified coverage gaps and dropped calls across operators, with VIL recording the highest number of dropped calls at 21.
The drive covered areas including BamunGaon, Dijabora, Mupa, Didaodip, Retzol and Damchara, while hotspot assessments were conducted at seven locations along the Lumding–Silchar Road corridor and Tiniali Bazar.
In Guwahati, the findings are significant for businesses, logistics operators, digital service providers and consumers who depend on reliable connectivity across Assam’s transport network. Improved telecom performance along major highways can support smoother digital transactions, e-commerce growth and business communication, strengthening economic linkages between Guwahati and other commercial centres in the Northeast.
